Speaker 1: Welcome to Spotlight Advanced. I'm Megan no Lett.
Speaker 2: And I'm Andrew Davis. Spotlight uses a special English method
Speaker 2: of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand no
Speaker 2: matter where in the world they live.
Speaker 1: Do you know how your parents first met? Do you
Speaker 1: know what happened before they got married? What did your
Speaker 1: grandparents do to get to know each other before they
Speaker 1: got married? How have you looked for a husband or wife?
Speaker 1: Today's spotlight is on courtship the many different ways men
Speaker 1: and women find a husband or wife.
Speaker 2: Courtship is an name for the process of finding and
Speaker 2: getting to know someone that you will marry. Today, many
Speaker 2: people do this through dating, but not in every culture.
Speaker 2: Courtship happens differently in cultures around the world, and courtship
Speaker 2: today often is very different from courtship hundreds of years ago.
Speaker 2: Let's look at some of the different ways people find love.
Speaker 1: In ancient times, many marriages started when men from one
Speaker 1: group or tribe would steal a woman from another tribe.
Speaker 1: The woman would then be forced to become the man's wife.
Speaker 1: She would become a part of her new tribe. Family
Speaker 1: and community are often important in finding a husband or
Speaker 1: a wife. For royal families, this choice can also affect
Speaker 1: a whole country. Often these marriages are arranged, that is,
Speaker 1: other people helped to choose the husband or wife, or
Speaker 1: others even force a particular choice.
Speaker 2: Arranged marriages were common through history among royal families as
Speaker 2: a way to bring security to a country. One example
Speaker 2: of this is Queen Maria Theresa of Austria. She had
Speaker 2: thirteen sons and daughters. She used her children as a
Speaker 2: way to help her country avoid wars. The Queen forced
Speaker 2: her children to marry dukes and duchesses from other countries.
Speaker 2: By the end of her life, Maria had children who
Speaker 2: were part of the royal families of Spain, France, Netherlands
Speaker 2: and Italy.
Speaker 1: Arranged marriages do not just happen among rich and powerful people,
Speaker 1: and they are often a way for parents to love
Speaker 1: and care for their children. This kind of marriage is
Speaker 1: common in many cultures.
Speaker 2: In some parts of Pakistan, families follow a courtship tradition
Speaker 2: called pate leiki. In the Urbdu language, pate means written
Speaker 2: leiki means stomach, so pate leiki means written on the stomach.
Speaker 2: Two families agree to marry their children before they are
Speaker 2: born or when they are very young. The marriage then
Speaker 2: happens when the children are young adults. The children must
Speaker 2: follow the wishes of their families. They are not permitted
Speaker 2: to decide whom they will marry, but recently courts in
Speaker 2: Pakistan have tried to fight this tradition.
Speaker 1: There is also a form of arranged marriage in Japan.
Speaker 1: There this process is called miyai. Parents will choose a
Speaker 1: boy for their daughter to meet. Sometimes the family will
Speaker 1: hire a nakodo or go between a person who knows
Speaker 1: many young people in the community. This nakodo will then
Speaker 1: choose two available people. The man and women look at
Speaker 1: pictures of each other and then decide to meet. The
Speaker 1: families and the son and daughter all attend this first meeting.
Speaker 1: If the meeting goes well, then the couple may meet
Speaker 1: again and someday get married. But if a marriage is
Speaker 1: not arranged, how do two people find each other for marriage?
Speaker 1: There are many other traditions that help people meet each other.
Speaker 2: Meeting in public places is a common custom for courtship.
Speaker 2: In the village of Crosscombe in England, young men and
Speaker 2: women had an interesting courting tradition in the fourteen hundreds.
Speaker 2: The young, unmarried women in the village would block the
Speaker 2: village streets. They would make all the the unmarried men
Speaker 2: pay a fine to pass through. The next day, the
Speaker 2: unmarried men would block the street and the women would
Speaker 2: have to pay. All the money collected went to the
Speaker 2: local church, and the young men and women got to
Speaker 2: know each other a little better.
Speaker 1: A newer form of courtship is called speed dating. The
Speaker 1: idea started in Beverly Hills, California, in nineteen eighty eight.
Speaker 1: Here is how speed dating works. Many men and women
Speaker 1: gather together at a restaurant or bar. A speed dating
Speaker 1: leader tells the people what to do. Each man finds
Speaker 1: a woman to talk with and they sit down at
Speaker 1: a table. The man and woman talk and ask questions
Speaker 1: to quickly learn about the other person. After about five minutes,
Speaker 1: the speed dating leader rings a bell. Everyone must find
Speaker 1: a new person to talk with.
Speaker 2: The men and women talk to many people throughout the night.
Speaker 2: If a man enjoys talking to one particular woman, he
Speaker 2: writes her name down. The women do the same thing.
Speaker 2: At the end of the night, everyone gives their names
Speaker 2: to the speed dating leader. If a man and woman
Speaker 2: wrote each other's names, they are a match. The speed
Speaker 2: dating leader gives them the phone number or email address
Speaker 2: of their match.
Speaker 1: Speed dating may seem like a foolish way to meet people.
Speaker 1: How much can you really learn about a person in
Speaker 1: just five minutes, But many experts say that some of
Speaker 1: the most important opinions you make about someone happen within
Speaker 1: the first thirty seconds. Speed dating is quick courtship.
Speaker 2: Courtship traditions in the Philippines are not quick like this. Instead,
Speaker 2: in many different parts, the man and the woman slowly
Speaker 2: show interest in each other. When the interest is confirmed,
Speaker 2: they begin to go on dates. But in different areas
Speaker 2: of the country, there are other traditions too. In the
Speaker 2: Palawan region, men perform courtship through the use of love riddles.
Speaker 2: A riddle is a question that must be solved. Riddles
Speaker 2: often have hidden meanings. The parents of the girl ask
Speaker 2: the man and his parents riddles to learn more about them.
Speaker 1: In the Pungasanan region of the Philippines, the man makes tagaama,
Speaker 1: a liquid love potion. He gives this to the woman,
Speaker 1: hoping she will drink the tagaama or use it as
Speaker 1: a perfume and fall in love with him. If this
Speaker 1: does not work, he will act out a story or
Speaker 1: drama to show his love for the woman. In the
Speaker 1: Versaiahs region, the men sing songs to the women they
Speaker 1: want to marry. Men also will write love letters and
Speaker 1: give these to a close friend to bring to the woman.
Speaker 1: But the man does not only write to the woman,
Speaker 1: he also writes to her family.
Speaker 2: Whatever the culture, courtship is an important part of life.
Speaker 2: Courtship is how we decide whom to marry. It is
Speaker 2: part of forming families. No matter how you find a
Speaker 2: husband or wife, courtship is the first part of forming
Speaker 2: a good marriage relationship.
Speaker 1: What do you think of these courtship traditions? What do
Speaker 1: you look for in a person who you will marry?
Speaker 1: What character treats build a lifelong commitment to another person?
Speaker 1: Share your thoughts with us. You can leave a comment
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Speaker 1: official Spotlight English app.
Speaker 2: The writers and producers of this program were from the
Speaker 2: Spotlight team. The voices you heard were from the United
Speaker 2: Kingdom and the United States. All quotes were adapted for
Speaker 2: this program and voiced by Spotlight. You can listen to
Speaker 2: this program again and read it on the internet at
Speaker 2: www dot Radio English dot net. This program is called
Speaker 2: Traditions of Love.
Speaker 1: We hope you will join us for the next Spotlight program. Goodbye,